Is interface loyalty the new brand loyalty?
Lessons to be learned from ChatGPT
What is interface loyalty?
Many of us are familiar with the concept of brand loyalty; the tendency of consumers to continue buying from the same brand, rather than competing brands. Brand loyalty manifests in various types of trade marks, from names such as APPLE, to logos such as Nike’s ‘Swoosh’, and colours such as Cadbury’s distinctive purple, enabling customers to return to the same brand after a positive experience.
Interface loyalty is a similar modern concept, describing the preference or adherence of a user to a particular digital interface, primarily due to its ease of use, design aesthetics, functionality, and overall user experience. Interface loyalty can manifest across various platforms – such as mobile apps, websites, software, or even a digital device’s operating system.
A prime example of a brand which has generated interface loyalty is the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT. Many believe ChatGPT offers the first generative AI chatbot platform, associating its success to the simple fact it was the first on the market. However, ChatGPT was not the first. Although, it could be argued that ChatGPT was the first well-known and widely used AI chatbot because it is easy to use, and many users returned to ChatGPT after a positive first-experience. In other words, ChatGPT was able to generate strong interface loyalty.
What value lies within interface loyalty?
A Coca-Cola executive once gave the following analogy to demonstrate the value in the Coca-Cola brand:
“If Coca-Cola were to lose all of its production-related assets in a disaster, the company would survive… by contrast, if all of its consumers were to have a sudden lapse of memory and forget everything related to the Coca-Cola brand, the company would go out of business”.
The same could be argued for interface value: if ChatGPT was to lose all of its production-related assets in a disaster, the company would survive… by contrast, if all of its users were to have a sudden lapse of memory and forget how easy it is to use ChatGPT, the company could go out of business.
The perpetual importance of brand protection
There is no doubt that brands and interfaces both carry significant individual value in generating customer loyalty. Therefore, IP protection for brands and interfaces can add significant value and strength to the success and longevity of a business. However, it is important to note that trade mark protection should not be neglected in favour of relying upon interface loyalty.
How to protect brands and interfaces with intellectual property
Choosing a good trade mark and investing in strong trade mark protection early on is often a vital part in the success and longevity of well-established brands. Businesses can further enhance their intellectual property (IP) protection by seeking to protect their interfaces using patents, registered designs and copyright. Patents protect the technical aspects of interfaces, while registered designs protect the visual appearance, and copyright protects the originality of the interface as an artistic work.
As a trade mark attorney my expertise is in brand protection, so I will continue to focus on this aspect of IP. However, if you would like more information on patents, designs or copyright protection, my colleagues will be able to offer their advice.
What makes a good trade mark?
If you can obtain a registration for your trade mark, you can stop others from using your mark or something similar. For this reason, you cannot protect something which is laudatory or descriptive of your goods and services because such marks should be free for all to use.
We would recommend choosing either a mark which is highly distinctive (such as a new invented word like KODAK, or a word which has no meaning for the relevant goods/services like SHELL), or an allusive trade mark (such as INNOCENT).
Protecting your trade mark
Once you have chosen a registrable trade mark and searches have been conducted to ensure the mark is free to use and register, we would recommend filing an application to protect the mark. A registered trade mark provides you with the right to use that mark for the goods/services for which it is registered, and to stop others from doing so.
It also has the following benefits:
· It tells people about you and your business, helping to discourage others from getting too close to your mark. It acts as a warning, a flag.
· Most countries operate a first to file system. Registration protects your interests even before you start using your trade mark, providing valuable protection for your business while you get up and running with your project.
· Registration acts as proof of your rights. Even in countries which protect rights established through use, you have to prove what you have got and relying on these rights is usually more expensive and uncertain.
· A registered trade mark is an asset which can be sold or licensed. For a business, a trade mark can be listed in the balance sheet as an asset.
Could a poor choice of trade mark lead to the downfall of ChatGPT’s success?
OpenAI is facing difficulties around the world in protecting ChatGPT as a trade mark due to its descriptive nature. In the context of AI chatbots, ‘Chat’ means: “synchronous exchange of remarks over a computer network”, and ‘GPT’ stands for “generative pre-trained transformers”, which are neural network models that create human-like text and answer questions in a conversational manner.
OpenAI’s decision to use a descriptive trade mark will mean it has a very difficult – and expensive – time trying to protect the brand and stop copycats, to the extent that it may lose control of the brand entirely. If the market becomes flooded with other companies using ‘ChatGPT’, the mark may no longer be able to function as a trade mark designating OpenAI’s product and it may be left with no choice but to re-brand, which would ultimately reveal the true value in its interface loyalty. Would this be enough for the product to survive a re-brand?
Barker Brettell has extensive experience in brand protection. If you would like assistance, please contact the author, or your usual Barker Brettell attorney.
